ABSTRACT
The rights-of-nature movement has been widely hailed as one of the greatest legal transformations in human history – one that has the real potential to fundamentally reorient human societies towards sustainability. Crucially, this movement also has the potential to help decolonise environmental law and create space for Indigenous legal orders to guide ecological decision-making going forward. This chapter advances the constitutionalisation of rights for nonhuman animals, ecosystems and the Earth itself. It begins with a brief historical overview of human conceptualisations of nature, noting that the concept of human dominion over a right-less nature is in fact a culturally specific and relatively new human invention. It considers the need for a paradigm shift from anthropocentrism to ecocentrism and examines existing constitutional provisions and decisions that may be early signs of this phenomenon. Case studies are presented of constitutional protection for rights of nature through express provisions and/or constitutional adjudication in Ecuador, Bolivia, New Zealand, Colombia, India and Bangladesh.
